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Friday, June 30, 2017

Media Friday

As you know by now, WNEP launched some new graphics Tuesday afternoon. The debut was smooth, but there will be some tweaks and enhancements in the days to come.

A lot of people have said nice things about the LA Tarone obituary that ran on Newswatch 16 Monday. Thank you. Two things really made it work-- the talents of photographer and editor Corey Burns, and the vision of producer Tanya Cleary, who recognized we needed more than 90 seconds to tell the story. That extra minute meant a lot.

I'm a week and a half in to my Sirius XM free trial through Amazon Echo, and I love it. Do I love it enough to pay $20 a month? I don't see it going in that direction.

CNN had to pull back a web story on Trump and the Russians. If there was ever a time to double and triple check a story like that, now is the time. The media can be its own worst enemy.

A picture of Clay LePard and I generated dozens of hits on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Clay moved on to Orlando, Florida this week. He's a good kid and a solid journalist. Big things are in his future.

In spite of all the recent talent changes and controversies, FOX News still dominates cable. That's a testament to consistent branding.

Stephen Colbert's 18 week winning streak over Jimmy Fallon was broken last week. Colbert was in reruns for two days, but I sense some of it could be fatigue from the one note nature of Colbert's broadcast.

Independence Day approaches, and apologies for a geezer moment, but I don't think anything will ever top the tall ships that dominated TV that day in 1976.

Greta Van Susteren is out after six months at MSNBC. In previous stops, she always delivered a decent broadcast. I don't know what went wrong here.